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Reconciling scientific and religious discourse about madness during the age of reason: lessons for today?
Author(s) -
WEEKS N.P.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
journal of psychiatric and mental health nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.69
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1365-2850
pISSN - 1351-0126
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2850.1996.tb00069.x
Subject(s) - secularization , viewpoints , period (music) , sociology , mental illness , psychoanalysis , epistemology , aesthetics , psychology , religious studies , mental health , philosophy , psychiatry , art , visual arts
Reconciling scientific and religious discourse about madness during the age of reason: lessons for today? This paper argues that the secularization of madness, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, occurred as a consequence of cultural change that accompanied the social upheavals of the age. In examining the reconciliation of competing explanations for madness, from theological and empirical viewpoints, it is suggested that these paradigms were never totally separated and argued that developments during this period were a consequence of continual interaction and dialogue between these contrasting views. Furthermore, it is suggested that an understanding of these changing times can illuminate present debates surrounding mental illness.